TRACK | Elis struggle at Yale Invite

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This past Saturday, the women’s and men’s track teams brought in the new year by hosting the College Invitational in New Haven. The meet showcased races against Southern Connecticut State, the University of Connecticut, Albany, Fordham, the University of New Haven and many other North Eastern schools.

The daylong contest proved to be a positive beginning for the Blue, who led in several events that they had trained for last year.

Among the highlights of the day was Bailey Carroll’s ’11 tie for second place in the women’s pole vault with 3.05 meters. Marty Evans ’11 stole eighth place in the men’s 400-meter dash and Matt Biezard ’12 came in a close 10th. Alexa Monti ’12 was the only woman to make it to finals for the 60-meter dash this weekend and finished in eighth place. The women’s 4×800 relay proved successful with Yale’s only first-place win of the day.

“I thought we did really well,” women’s captain Jen Lin ’11 said. “It was a good starting-off point and the cross country runners got their feet wet in an indoor competition.”

Based on statistics alone, the women had stronger performances than did the men did this weekend in New Haven.

Perhaps both Bulldog teams’ struggles were a result of the fact that they had been training individually over winter break. In addition, some runners sat out of the competition this weekend in order to train for upcoming events.

“The problems were mostly with preparation,” Jared Bell ’09 said. “A lot of [runners] didn’t come with the mentality to put their best foot forward against some tough competition.”

But in traditional Eli spirit, team members said they will use their losses from this weekend to fuel next weekend’s meet against Dartmouth and Columbia ­— the first All-Ivy meet of the season. Bell further explained that he expects the men to be ready to race against some more stiff competitors.

Although this weekend did not quite meet the teams’ hopes, the supportive environment has still laid a foundation for future successes.

“Everyone was cheering each other on and we had a lot of fun [this weekend],” Gabriella Kelly ’12 said. “Everybody looks like they’re on point for the rest of the season.”

The All-Ivy contest this upcoming weekend will also be hosted in New Haven ­— Yale has won this meet for the past several years. In addition to the motivation the teams have gained from this weekend’s College Invitational, they also hope to get a burst of energy from the runners who did not compete this weekend.

“We expect to win,” Bell said. “Anything less will be a huge disappointment.”